MauritiusPost 3

As a field trip/field project for my Marine Biology class I had to sign up for a Catamaran and Snorkeling trip. I got the “orange team” catamaran!  We had to get into a tender boat and go out to our Catamaran and Crew. Our Catamaran had three crewmembers and a tour guide on board. On the way to the snorkel site we were supposed to be looking for dolphins, but instead, I SPOTTED WHALES! I was the first one and ran to the side, the crew saw what I had spotted and everyone on the front ducked as they swung the front sail to the other side and we headed towards the whales. I am still not entirely confident, but pretty sure they were Sperm Whales. They were huge! It was probably a pod of about 5-7 whales with at least one young whale! At first they were surfacing a ways out, but we got the opportunity to get pretty close later. After we had watched for a bout 15 minutes some of the other Catamarans came to steal our good view!  We had to move around, but we got to watch the whales for probably about an hour. It was so nice! They turned off the music and the engines and we just sailed along listening to the whales blow all the water and air, and then gently surface and go back down. They were SO big! I don’t even know what to compare it to, but they were huge! 

After our whale sightings, we continued on towards the coral reef. When we arrived at the coral reef  we got ready in our snorkel gear and jumped right in! The water was nice (well, I thought so, others did not) and it was really fun to snorkel! The coral reef was not in very good shape, but surprisingly, there were still TONS of fish to check out!  After we snorkeled for a while we could smell our lunch! They were cooking out fresh marlin right on the grill hanging off the back of our Catamaran!! We hurried out of the water and were treated to fresh marlin, chicken kabobs, rice, garlic bread on the grill, and FRESH pineapple! It was such a treat! You would think they don’t feed us on the ship when the tour companies see how much we pig out for such a good meal!

What a day! It was so much fun to relax in the sun! I got a little sunburnt, but I put on sunscreen a few different times! My sunburn isnt too bad though, I guess I will call it my souvenir from Mauritius!